2014 F1 season

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says extending the unpopular double points plan to three races instead of one could make it less of a lottery.

Asked whether the sport’s determination to introduce a rule which an overwhelming majority of fans oppose Horner said: “I think of course the fans’ opinions matter and I think that I don’t think it’s any secret that I wasn’t particularly in favour of it.”

“I can understand why the governing body and the promoter are keen to keep the championship alive until the last race but two out of the last four years it’s gone to the last race under the previous points scoring system.”

Bernie Ecclestone originally proposed to offer double points at the last three races of the year, after Sebastian Vettel on last year’s championship with three races to spare. Horner suggested that might be a better solution.

“It would probably be better to, rather than look at just the last race, if you’re going to end up dealing with the points, is look at more than one race. Look at three races, maybe take away an element of lottery over that last race.

“But it is what it is, it’s the same for everybody as we stand here and that’s what we’ve got.”

I agree that they don’t belong at all, but the point that more than one race with double points takes away some of the lottery element makes sense unfortunately. I’d much rather see them gone completely, but maybe Bernie getting his way completely would have been better than the half-measure we got.

@matt90
On the other hand it will severely punish teams who are good in the beginning of the season and not so good later on.
With just a single race offering double points, those situations won’t be messed up quite as severely.
In the end, I don’t think there exists a thing like a ‘decent’ compromise in this case.
It doesn’t matter how it’s implemented or for how many races, at some point it will screw over a team/driver unfairly and even worse, create an undeserving champion.

If you read what he actually said (as opposed to what the headine makes it sound like he said), he’s not backing the double points idea. He even goes as far as to say “I donâ€™t think itâ€™s any secret that I wasnâ€™t particularly in favour of it.â€ť

He is saying that if we have to have double points, it’d be better to do it for the last 3 races rather than just the final race which is right.

The final race only means that a driver can be 49 points ahead but can lose the championship because of a DNF. If it’s the final 3 race, it keeps the championship going til the end (as they want) but it removes the lottery of it a bit.

Of course we all want no double points because it’s a terrible idea and devalues the rest of the season but Bernie is clearly not going to listen to the fans. The sooner he gets booted out of F1 the better.

@petebaldwin
It moves the argument away from “should we have it or not?” to “how should it be?”.
I don’t think that is what we need. Saying that A is better then B is not going to get us C.
If he really was against it, he should either not say anything, or make it perfectly clear that he is against it entirely. Anything else will only be helping FIA stuffing it down our throats.

Yeah that’s fair enough but it comes back to the usual issue with these interviews. What was he asked?

It looks to me like he was asked if it was a good idea to introduce double points and he basically said no. It then looks like he was asked what he thought about double points for the last 3 races and he said it’s probably a better solution than just the final race.

Having said that, he made it fairly clear for me in the first part of the interview that he was against the idea of double points anyway.

That’s what it sounds like to me too. Basically, “I dont want the double points rule, but if we really have to have it, 3 races would be better than 1.”

As an aside, if the rule stays I will not be watching the last race. I would boycott the entire season if I hadn’t already booked to go to Spa. If it stays for next season then this year’s Brazillian GP will be the last I watch…

Or it could be extended to all 19 races, so it’s not a lottery at all!

I try desperately to like Horner, but every time he speaks he reminds me of a cross between one of those shadowy spin-doctors who lurk behind the shoulder of prominent politicians and a vacuum cleaner salesman.

I would like to add that it would be great if some journalist out there could ask a team principal how it’s possible that a rule that is opposed by so many fans and by a majority of the teams still makes it into the sporting regulations.

@full-throttle-f1 Which I so want so bad to happen, now that I have heard his opinion . I know you’re probably thinking even Mercedes keep mum.That’s true.It’s sad really.Fans don’t have any say in the sport at all.Bernie,what a nonsensical rule !

OK, let’s assume that Vettel is 40 points behind Alonso with three races to go and then wins the next two races (+100 points), while Alonso doesn’t score a point. Vettel clinches title in the penultimate race, while the title battle would have gone down to the wire under the normal points system.

You can turn a sport into a parody of its former self but it still won’t guarantee excitement all the time. If that is what you want, computer games & TV series are the way to go.

@paeschli
No it would be exactly the same, as all points are doubled for all positions.
Say driver A wins the first two races, and driver B finishes 2nd in both races. Lets look at the gaps between them.

Double points:
A : 50+50=100
B : 36+36=72
100-72=28.

Normal points:
A : 25+25=50
B : 18+18=36
50-36=14.

14*2 is 28, so the relative gap is the same.
Both gaps could be closed (with respectively 2 and 1 points in change) with:
A: DNF
B: 3rd place.